The number of blood donors in Scotland has dropped to 179,000 this year from 208,000 a decade ago, according to the Scottish National Blood Transfusion Service. Blood banks currently are meeting demand, but it remains important that more people donate blood to save lives, an agency official said.

A team of U.S. and Japanese experts found three genes that enabled the Spanish flu virus to cause severe pneumonia and kill as many as 50 million people across the globe in 1918. Normal flu viruses reproduce primarily in the upper respiratory tract, but the genes allowed the 1918 virus to replicate in the lungs as well, a study co-author said. The findings could prove useful in developing novel antiviral treatments, one of the scientists said.

India's Cryo-Save says it has received hundreds of inquiries about stem cell banking since it launched its operations in the country earlier this month, according to the firm's managing director. The company has invested in 10 stem cell banks and has partnered with hospitals and gynecologists to raise awareness of the potential of stem cell therapy.